Organisational History

Founders Words

I witnessed first hand the limitations on the time a volunteer (or even staff members) can devote to the specialised activity of marketing, the demanding activity of sales, and time consuming administration.

Opening Halls was born to solve this problem and allow Not For Profits to successfully use the assets they have to generate additional income without the burden of waged staff.

Damien Hudson.

Opening Halls was established to meet the needs of Not-For-Profit organisations without the resources to market and manage their buildings.

For two years the business owner, Damien Hudson, volunteered for a Not-For-Profit in Collingwood, Melbourne, advertising and organizing external hirers of its hall.

The hall was in poor condition and needed urgent repair. The Not-For-Profit was struggling to meet overhead, let alone being able to spend money on critical maintenance. It soon became evident to Damien that the nature of this volunteering while working full time put severe limits on the time available to effectively perform his volunteer role of generating critical income for this Not-For-Profit.

There had to be a better way, so Damien created it !

The reality of the situation was that more time, especially during business hours, was needed to properly engage with external hirers. Offering your community space for hire is a business, and as such needs to be properly resourced and be ready to engage effectively with potential customers. Most volunteers do not have the available time to the to do that, and those that do, often lack the critical marketing skills to bring customers to your enterprise and the financial, pubic relations and sales skills to maximize hire opportunities.

Opening Halls meets these needs by allowing your organization to effectively market your space for hire and manage the inquiry, bookings, and paperwork that activity generates.

Opening Halls was established to meet these needs.

Opening Halls ~ increasing your Not-For-Profit's income and relevance to the community